We had deliberately paced ourselves during the month of May in regards to our meeting schedule because Uchanma had traveled home to the East Coast and then Kris had traveled to Texas to visit family. When we got back together we shared some of our reflections and research progress we had made.

Kris had been meeting with various people every week, sharing the vision and invitation of Solarpunk Christian.

Both Uchanma and Kris had also looked into and researched other recently formed Christian religious orders (as assigned homework by one Doctorate advisor) to compare and contrast with their vision of Solarpunk Christian as a religious order.

Below you can find their ongoing writings and findings:

Google Doc graphs comparing and contrasting various orders: Google Doc Link

Uchanma had written for us the following:

Order of the Mustard Seed and Order of Common life & other reflections 

OMS is a revivalist order firmly rooted in the Church of England and related orders and inspired by the 24hr prayer movement, It has a robust exploration and discernment process with structured onboarding webinars, virtual resources communicating the order’s ethos and opportunities to discern and receive input. The final decision points to join the order are subject to approval by OMS spiritual director members and aviliabilty of cohort space in season of preparation. Thus from interest to joining the order seems a likely multi-year process. The order seems to have its origins in the UK diaspora though appears to be a virtual community with occasional gatherings.  Its rule is prayer, creativity, hospitality, mercy & justice, culture shaping, evangelism & mission. In this way it is strongly reminiscent of an evangelical church in contrast to the some of the noted emphasis of Moravians from whom it takes inspiration and claims heritage : the good news to the poorest and most despised. The focus of this order is an amorphous focused Christ following in whatever context one is in, it is unclear what story compels its existence or re-launch in this generation, what it offers that the local church is lacking. [For adults]

The Order of Common life

Another could be evangelical community, has structure but more immediate access. Yearly intake for new folk each Fall/Spring with bi-weekly cohort to explore rule and commitments with training focus for spiritual directors (an order for ‘order leaders’), 3 year ‘trial’ with retreats, study, cohorts before vows. More defined purpose as ‘for church’ rooted in Columbus Ohio as a gathered community / in person community with work placement available. Recovered the role of ‘patron’ in supporting the community. Rule: bodily labor (in service of community and contextual), prayer, study (structured & under consultation), rest (guided). More of contemplative order with heavy influence and heritage on Jesuits & Ignatius [For adults]

In Howards Shoppe

One article argues that monasticism must implicitly involve celibacy or maybe singleness and or withdrawal, solitude, etc. a way of life that emphasizes the contemplative search for God in its communal expressions. The heart of monastic tradition, across religious traditions, is interiority, contemplative experience,  contemplative practices..there can be many forms of monasticism as long as the retain this contemplative heart. One argument is monasticism is more defined by renunciation: abandonment of family, career and other worldly frameworks of living, and the accompanying commitment to live an alternative life. The new monks of their day invented new terms to describe themselves, St. Francis petition for their order yielded the term friars or mendicants, not called monks…TLDR The monastic way of life is about being a new king of person/people, renunciants: people who have rejected the way of life of our contemporary society and who have sought to live — in a distinctly Jesus manner — in a new kind of life. 

Solarpunk Christian - We find new saints, new contemplatives, and inspirations - we claim indigenous monastics unrecognizable to western christianity today, we claim ideas of fiction and game as inspired writings - C.S. Lewis the Great Divorce, etc. We recover icons and embodied ways of knowing, practices and traditions that predate Protestantism. We value technology and pathways of seeking God in the technological future.

—Check-in & catch-up on last ten days with Holy Week/Easter in the rearview mirror

—Have our 3pm Zoom meeting with a new friend at the recommendation of our LA visited friend. Had some great conversation and connections. We discussed and shared mutual excitement over the overlap of solarpunk, similar life theme and agreement over the needs of our communities. We felt led to extend an invitation to be our third co-founder. They were enthusiastically and honored and are definitely interested in following and will take some time to think/pray more.

—Sharpened the description/micropitch of SC

—Uchanma and Kris discussed more about the different games and focus on play/playing that Solarpunk Christian is engaging. Pivoting from having “The Solarpunk Game” be the fifth spiritual practice of The Rule and choosing to instead “Play”. In addition to “The Solarpunk Game” (which, itself may take a variety of forms. A physical board game and/or an interactive Live RPG/LITRPG variations? We hope so!) Solarpunk Christians will likely be developing and playing multiple games, tools and endeavors to “play” with God inwardly, outwardly, communally.

—Scheduled tentative soft-play-launch interest with friends on the evening of Wednesday, April 22nd…White Dr? Hapas?

— We prayed very briefly ☑

— We’re both juggling several things but doing ok and taking time to reflect, course correct, rest, and rest and regroup ☑